I figured out the whole title thing, Thanks Rachel

Editing to Add: Along with crafting letters I've opened a little online boutique, Babbling Brooke. Today is the first day things go on sale. I was invited to join a bigger group, which is why I started mostly. The congo is here. I'm not going to be contributing a lot, just a few things here and there because, well, I'm still, foremost, a Mama to toddler twins. There are some free lotteries at all the vendors sites, so come enter for cute free stuff. New items will stock on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month.





Crafting. Beautiful big letters hang over the kids beds now.
They know they say either Stuart or Alison but don't yet understand which one says what. We'll point to the big A word and say,

"What does that say?"

"STUUUUEEEY"

"No, that says Alison. See it hangs over Alison's bed?"

Turn around and point to the big S word.

"What does that word say over Stuey's bed?"

"AAALLLLIII"

[repeat above process 15 times with little variation]

Yeah, whatever.

And of course, a series of entries wouldn't be complete without a picture from the zoo. They have a white alligator there this season called The Ghost of the Bayou. The exhibit is really well done and the white alligator is awesome. The twins don't realize that all alligators aren't white so they were much more interested in 1. the misting system 2. the normal baby alligators at the end of the exhibit.

Also, we had our second tragedy at the zoo. The first tragedy occur ed last winter. We lost Alison's pink buddy (you know, the one that she sleeps with every night, cuddles when she's sad, and keeps fastidious tabs on except for when we were at the small animal house at the zoo). I called a few times over the next few weeks, nothing. I knew our old neighbor across the street had one just like ours. I was ready to break and enter their house in the dark of night and steal from a 3-year old. That is what life without buddy was like, torture. Luckily, Abby kindly gave Alison the new clean pink buddy with little negotiation. So, the second tragedy happened last week. Stuart loves trucks. He doesn't go anywhere without them. You'll often see him with 6 or seven piled in his arms. He has two favorites, a green garbage truck and a yellow school bus (which we incidentally stole from our 3-year old neighbor). I wouldn't let him bring those for fear that we would lose them. We finally settled on bringing the twactur (tractor) and 2 twucks. One of the trucks now sadly lives in the elephant cage. Sadly, I wasn't willing in recovering it for my sweet boy. Thankfully it wasn't the green garbage or yellow bus--see, I do learn from past mistakes. Anyhow.

The scene of the accident.

Other news. Uncle Jeremy (pronounced Uncle Germy) is going to Korea to teach English. He's our barber too so Stuart got one last haircut on Father's Day. If I don't get too crazy with his hair getting long, he'll be growing his hair until Germy returns.

Another picture from Father's Day. Daddy we love you!

We've been loving the summer. Painting.

We've also been working on the backyard a ton. We weren't able to get a full garden planted this summer but had a great pea crop, some strawberries, lots of promising grapes, and great herbs. The garden area retaining wall is built though--so next summer. We've been working on the dirt work in the back yard. This weekend we finally sifted through the last of the rocks. Onto leveling, curbing, trenching, sprinklers, sod, planters, trellises, fruit trees, berries/grapes and hire a fence company. Yeah, lots more work to do. Luckily Alison and Stuart love to help.

Also, Alison has finally begun to respond when talking on the phone. This is a very important call she's taking from her Grandpa.